Beginning a domestic goddess embroidery series

Introducing you to a new embroidery project I’m designing featuring Sally the domestic goddess. Sally loves delicious cakes, cats, pugs, flowers, cups of tea, cooking, sewing, embroidery and all things retro with a dash of vintage. Sally lives on her own in her small house in the inner city area of Richmond in Melbourne. She works full time for a large corporation. Sally dreams of one day finding that someone special and setting up her own cafe where she can share her love of beautiful food and delectable cakes with her customers.

The series of mini needlepoint designs will feature Sally, her cat Nigel and Steve the Pug in various domestic situations. This first card is called “Waiting for Guests”. The house is clean, a fresh pot plant on the window sill. Sally wears her favourite red retro inspired dress which she picked up from the dry cleaner that morning. She wears her only pair of black high heeled Louboutin shoes. She saved for ages to buy her one and only pair.

She spent the morning baking her special pastel pink and light blue sponge cake. The cake is topped with delicate bright red roses made from icing sugar. Sally learnt to make her cakes from her grandmother. The antique silver cake stand Sally was also given to her by her grandmother a few years ago.

Sally spent all morning cleaning her house in anticipation of her guests arriving. Vacuuming all of Steve’s pug hair took her an entire hour. She did not know pugs shed to much hair. Nigel knows guests are on their way. He is not at all happy about having strangers in the house, yet again. Sally loves to entertain and has friends over most weekends.

Sally was created from this sketch I drew on the train on the way to work one morning last week. Sally and her cat Nigel suddenly appeared. While the sketch shows Sally with her hair in a bun, she decided to have it down for this Saturday afternoon tea.

The design is being stitched onto 14 count white canvas. You work out the canvas count by counting the number of blocks or tiny square in an inch. In this case there are 14 tiny squares for one inch of canvas. The tiny squares are too small to use wool but perfect for 6 skeins of DMC cotton floss.

Best of all this tiny needlepoint takes almost no time at all to stitch. As the sun goes down on another cold and chilly Autumn night the needles and threads slowly bring Sally, Steve and Nigel to life.